The flying tables.

Under this title we find the following article in the Illustration of 1853, preceded by the indispensable anecdotes, for which we beg pardon of our readers.

“Well, well, it is about the turning tables! Behold the flying tables! And it is not of today that the phenomenon occurs; it has existed for many years. Where? – you ask. Upon my honor it is a little far away: in Siberia! A Russian newspaper, Sjevernava Plschela, which means The Bee of the North, in its number of last April 27 contains in this regard an article by Mr. Tscherepanoff, who traveled in the country of the Kalmyks. Here is a passage:

“It must be known that the lamas, priests of the Buddhist religion, to which all the Mongols and Russian Buddhists adhere, like the ancient priests of ancient Egypt do not communicate the secrets they discover, but, on the contrary, make use of them to increase the influence they exercise over a naturally superstitious people. It is thus that they claim to have the power to find stolen objects, using for this the flying table. Things happen in the following manner:

“The victim of the theft goes to the lama, asking him to reveal the place where the objects are hidden. The priest of Buddha asks for two or three days, in order to prepare himself for this grave ceremony. The term having expired, he sits on the ground, places before him a small square table, puts his hands upon it and begins to read something incomprehensible; this lasts half an hour. After having stammered something, he rises, always keeping his hand in the same initial position, and the table lifts into the air. The lama draws himself up and places his hands on the top of his head, and the table rises to the same height; he takes a step forward, and the piece of furniture follows his example in the air; he steps back, and the table does the same. In short, the table takes various directions, ending by falling to the ground. It is in the principal direction the table took that the sought place is found. If one is to believe the accounts of the inhabitants, there have been cases in which the table fell exactly upon the place that concealed the stolen object. “In the experiment that Mr. Tscherepanoff witnessed the table flew to a distance of 15 toises. n The stolen object was not found immediately. But in the direction indicated by the piece of furniture there dwelt a Russian peasant, who perceived the sign and that same day attempted his own life. His sudden death raised suspicions. Investigations were made in his dwelling and there they found what they were looking for. The traveler witnessed three other experiments; all of them, however, failed. The table would not move; the lamas, however, were not embarrassed to explain such immobility: if the piece of furniture did not move, it was because the objects could not be found.

“Mr. Tscherepanoff witnessed this phenomenon in 1831, in the village of Jélany: “I did not believe what my eyes saw; I was convinced that there was some sleight of hand and that my lama was using a cleverly concealed cord or an iron wire to lift the table into the air. Nevertheless, looking closely, I perceived no sign of cord or of iron wire; the table was a thin plank of pine, weighing no more than a pound and a half. Today I am persuaded that the phenomenon is produced by the same causes as the dancing of the tables.

“Thus, the chiefs of the sect of the Spirits, who believed they had invented table-moving, did nothing more than spread an invention long known among other peoples. Nihil sub sole novi, said Solomon. Who knows whether in the time of Solomon himself the manner of making the tables turn was not known!… What am I saying? This process was known long before the worthy son of David. Read the North-China-Herald, cited by the Gazette d’Ausbourg of May 11, and you will see that the inhabitants of the celestial empire amused themselves with this game from time immemorial.”

Belonging to Nature, as we have already said hundreds of times, Spiritism is one of its forces, which is why the phenomena that result from it must have occurred in all times and among all peoples, interpreted, commented upon and adapted according to the customs and the degree of instruction. We have never claimed that it was a modern invention. The further we advance, the more we shall discover the traces it has left everywhere and in all ages. The moderns have no other merit than that of having stripped it of the mysticism, the exaggeration and the superstitious ideas of the times of ignorance. It is striking that most of the people who speak of Spiritism with such frivolity have never taken the trouble to study it. They judge it by a first impression, most of the time by hearsay, without knowledge of the matter, and they are surprised when we show them, at the bottom of all this, one of the principles that concern the gravest interests of Humanity. And let it not be thought that here we treat only of the interest of the other world. Whoever does not stop at the surface sees without difficulty that it touches upon all the vital questions of the present world. Who would have thought formerly that a frog, dancing on a plate, at the contact of a silver spoon, would give rise to a means of communicating, in a few seconds, from one end of the Earth to the other, of directing the lightning and producing a light that rivals that of the Sun? Patience, gentlemen jesters; from a table that dances there may well come a giant who will set the mockers aside. At the rate things are going, this does not begin badly. Allan Kardec.

Imprimerie de H. CARION, rue Bonaparte, 64.

[1] The toise is an ancient unit of measure of length originating in pre-revolutionary France. It was equivalent to six feet and approximately one meter and eighty-two centimeters.